The Russian Geographical Society will continue cleaning up the Arctic in 2017, the society's president, Sergei Shoigu, said at a media club meeting.

"We'd like to complete an ambitious program, together with the Natural Resources Ministry and the Defense Ministry, which was launched following our president's instructions — I mean the Arctic clean-up effort," Shoigu said.

He added that the Defense Ministry expedition had cleaned up about 3,500 metric tons of Arctic waste on the New Siberian Islands alone this season.